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You haven't actually explained the behavior, just restated it in simple terms. "Because they can" doesn't explain motive or reason, only opportunity.
by beart 7y ago
You haven't actually explained the behavior, just restated it in simple terms. "Because they can" doesn't explain motive or reason, only opportunity.
- taneq 7y agoEmpathy for, and altruism towards, your in-group against your out-group (for whatever the current values are of in-group and out-group) seems to me to be a necessary consequence of kin selection. You'd defend pretty much any human against an animal which was attacking them. You'd defend your country against other humans. You'd defend your family against others from your town. All of these are variations of "you're more likely to intervene in a conflict in favour of the side with a greater chance of being more closely related to you." It's selfish genes all the way down. (But from the point of view of the whale, the motivation is probably that the whales think orcas are mean and seals are OK. The genetic stuff just explains why whales are cool with seals but not orcas.)